SMALL CAP MOVERS: No festive cheer for Koovs - India's answer to ASOS - as it lowers full-year sales guidance

As we hurtle towards Christmas, all that will be in the stockings of Koovs investors will be a lump of coal if they’re lucky.

India’s answer to ASOS revealed on Tuesday that it expects full-year sales to be hit by lower marketing spend as it sorts out its ongoing funding requirements.

The company issued £8.9million worth of loan notes earlier in the year and is in ‘advanced negotiations’ about raising a further £10million.

India’s answer to ASOS revealed on Tuesday that it expects full-year sales to be hit by lower marketing spend

It expects to close that funding ‘shortly’ but until then its marketing budget will remain ‘significantly down’, which will likely weigh on full-year turnover.

That wasn’t warmly received by the market, with the stock shedding 47 per cent across the week to 14.2p.

One Media IP struck a more harmonious chord, doubling in value to 10.5p after former and BBC and ITV chairman Michael Grade invested in the music rights holder.

Grade has teamed up with former Pinewood Studios chief executive Ivan Dunleavy to take a stake in the firm, spending £375,000 in total via a subscription for 7.5million One Media IP ordinary shares, giving each a holding of 8.715 per cent.

Share this article

HOW THIS IS MONEY CAN HELP

Another heading higher was Stanley Gibbons, although the rare stamps and coins group said it knew of ‘no reason’ for the 20.6 per cent jump in its share price to 5.1p.

It’s been a tough year for the 161-year-old company, during which it racked up losses of £30.2million, defaulted on its banking facilities and saw its Guernsey-based investment business go bust.

All Stanley Gibbons could say this week was that it remains locked in talks with its bank – which it is now reliant upon – as well as other parties with regards to its ongoing financing.

Overall it’s been a very good week for the junior market, with the AIM All Share adding 18.2 points, or 1.8 per cent, to reach 1,033.3 – not too far from its all-time high of 1,045.

The blue chips enjoyed a similar rally in the run-up to Christmas, helping push the FTSE 100 up 97.2 points, or 1.3 per cent, 7,587.7.

Also propelling the junior market higher was Westminster Group, which delivered a nice present to investors on the final trading bay before Christmas.

Stanley Gibbons said it knew of ‘no reason’ for the 20.6 per cent jump in its share price

The security firm excited the market back in September when it revealed it had held successful talks with a client in the Middle East about a potential lucrative, long-term project.

Well, management has just returned from another round of ‘extensive’ discussions, with almost all of the major details ironed out and all but one of the necessary approvals granted.

Due to the increasing potential scope of the project and its complexity, Westminster will now undertake the project in phases, with the initial phase expected to be worth around €24million a year to the company.

Not bad for an AIM outfit with a market capitalisation of less than £12million. Inventors started to catch on to the disconnect between the project’s value and that of Westminster, with shares rising 81 per cent to 16.1p come Friday afternoon.

The biggest riser of the week though was Conroy Gold and Natural Resources, which saw its stock more than double to 27.5p after it revealed an increase in the updated mineral estimate for grades at its Clay Lake-Clontibret project in Northern Ireland.

Conroy – which also has assets in Finland – said after Thursday’s annual general meeting that the updated mineral estimate showed a 26 per cent rise in the resource grade and a 23 per cent increase in the gold grade in the indicated category.

‘There is also strong geological evidence to suggest that the lodes have a more extensive strike length than previously interpreted,’ said chairman Richard Conroy.

‘In addition, the new data from old antimony workings that became available during the year helped with the understanding of the structure and the antimony itself is economic and therefore potentially another income source given its status as a strategic mineral.’

On the flip side, Earthport shares came crashing down after the cross-border payments firm blamed contract delays and a ‘recent change’ at one of its leading e-commerce clients as it lowered its full-year revenue guidance.

The company now reckons sales will come in 10-15 per cent below current market expectations for the year to 30 June 2018. Shares dipped 16.3 per cent to 10.1p.

GoTech also took a pounding this week as it was forced to wind up ‘substantially all of its existing trading businesses and activities’, making it an AIM Rule 15 cash shell.

A sales review earlier this year concluded that the company’s focus should be on its Champions Programme which lets philanthropic organisations and corporate sponsors buy packages of Skills2Achieve licences – a literary assessment programme – for schools of their choice.

GoTech managed to get the charitable arms of Saracens Rugby Club on board with the scheme as well as several other schools and organisations, but further ‘meaningful’ sales haven’t materialised as planned.

The board has now decided to stop funding the division, leaving the company with no ongoing business.

As a cash shell, GoTech now has six months to complete a reverse takeover or the shares will be suspended. Should another six months pass, shares will be cancelled altogether. Shares fell 64.4 per cent to 0.48p.